I have built a fair number of fires in bad conditions, when it was raining and the woods were soaked. Generally the biggest problem has been the accompanying wind, which makes the process rather difficult. I can find dry tinder and small stuff by searching the inner parts of large, thick conifers. Hopefully I can find some standing pine knots in a snag. I have always split my wood by stomping or dropping a rock on a suspended log. A few minutes of that will produce enough kindling for an all night fire. When the rain continues, we just build a wigwam of kindling and logs and let the fire dry them out.

We all do check the weather report when we go out, don't we? I learned long ago that a good stove is well worth the weight in crummy conditions. You get that nice cup of tea a lot faster.

Batoning isn't environmentally bad, and it does demonstrate that you do indeed have a good,tough knife, but I have just never had to do it.

Although I do recall one SAR incident where we were treating a victim with lots of injuries (his injuries had injuries). We had used up all our splinting material and I was eyeing a nearby sapling, thinking "I am going to carve away everything that doesn't look like a splint." The sapling was saved when reinforcements,with fresh splints, arrived.

The Field Pup sounds intriguing - one can always use another good, cheap knife.